On flickr, as on almost every photo-sharing site out there, you have to decide how to organize your photos into albums. When you have kids, some photos don't fit neatly into one or another album, and you spend too much time deciding. Letting the timestamps do the organizing for you is a big win for people who don't want to spend time organizing. No, it isn't groundbreaking technology, but it's worth bragging about to people who have photos to share but don't have time to organize them.
The email feature is great for keeping friends up-to-date with what you've been doing. When you email a link, there's a decision people have to make as to whether they should look now or later. With embedded thumbnails they can see at a glance how interesting your latest photos are to them. I use the feature to keep up with old friends and former coworkers, as well as family, and it's the feature that generates the most excitement.
There are sites out there that spam your friends after you invite them to see your private album, and sites that don't give you access to the full-size photos you've uploaded, so those features are worth mention. If the bulleted list distracts from the main distinguishing features, do you think I should just make "other features" a link to a separate page?
I'm definitely not trying to beat flickr at its own game. Still, I am trying to find the right niche. Parents like ourdoings.com when I show it to them, but I still haven't found the market where people's hair is on fire.